The Food Site

Honestly, I’ve never even heard of Batik Cake until a friend raved about how great and rich and nice and all that to me. It sure did piqued my interest. The best of it is that it is a non-bake cake. It’s one of those cook over the stove, stir, pat into pan and refrigerate type of cake.

Considering I have been limiting my baking activities because I was not in the mood much nowadays, I thought heck, why not? A non-bake cake with loads of cocoa in it sounds simple and good enough.

The reason it’s called Batik Cake is pretty obvious looking at it. It looks like Batik pattern. I think it originated from East Malaysia, well, that’s what I found out when sifting through the numerous recipes available and custom-making it to suit my own taste.

As easy as it sounds, it actually turned out to be quite a lot of work too. But the end result told me it is worth all the work. The ingredient calls for rich tea biscuits (or Marie biscuits), sugar, butter, eggs, cocoa and fresh milk.

First, you smash up the rich tea biscuits into small pieces. This is a good time to let go of any frustrations or stress you have. Just imagine smashing the head of the person who had irritated you. What? The biscuits won’t feel a thing. It is a great stress reliever. Really…okay, if you are all serene and at peace with the world, you can always use the food processor to do the ‘dirty’ work.  Then set it aside for later.

Next, you pour the sugar (I use brown sugar but you can always use regular white sugar), eggs, milk and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine it all together.

Place a pan on the stove, dump the butter in and melt it over low heat. You don’t want to burn it or anything. Then, when it is all melted, you pour in the milk, eggs, flour, sugar and cocoa mixture. Let the mixture cook over low to medium fire until it has thickened. That should take between 10 to 15 minutes. Oh and remember to stir it all the while or else you may burn it.

It should thicken to this consistency. I know it looks lumpy but it is supposed to be like this. This is because the eggs are cooked, thus the lumpiness. But don’t worry, you won’t taste any lumpiness when you eat it later.

Then, you stir in the smashed tea biscuits. By that, I meant, really stir in. Mix it all up really, really well.

Make sure each tiny piece of biscuit is really covered in the thick cocoa mixture.

Then, you can spoon the thick mixture into a pan lined with greaseproof paper and pat it in. Don’t worry about hurting it. Really push it all in and flatten in. You want it to be compact.

To me, no chocolate cake, bake or non-bake, is complete without a nice chocolate ganache topping which I later add to the top. You can leave this out if you want to. After adding the topping, just put the pan into the fridge and let it set for several hours. It is best serve cold with a nice glass of milk. Yummm…

What does it taste like? Well, the tea biscuits gave it a slightly salty, biscuit-y flavour and the chocolate, oh, the chocolate is darn good. It’s like having rich chocolate covered tea biscuits, except better. Much, much better.

Now, here’s the recipe:

Batik Cake Recipe

Ingredients

200g rich tea biscuits (Marie biscuits)

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

250g butter

1 cup cocoa powder (optional: you can also use 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup Milo)

1/2 cup fresh UHT milk

Instructions

1. Smash up the rich tea biscuits and set aside.

2. Combine the sugar, eggs, cocoa and milk in a mixing bowl and mix well.

3. Melt the butter in a pan over low fire and then add in the cocoa mixture.

4. Cook the mixture until it thickened. Remove from heat.

5. Stir in the biscuits and mix it well to ensure the biscuits are all covered in the thick cocoa mixture.

6. Spoon the mixture into a pan, pre-lined with greaseproof paper (if you prefer), and press it all in firmly.

7. Spoon the chocolate ganache topping on top and spread it out evenly with a spatula or the back of the spoon.

8. Refrigerate the mixture for several hours, preferably more than 4 hours, and serve it cold.

Chocolate Ganache Topping Recipe

Ingredients

225g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

115ml heavy cream

60g butter

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a pan over low heat. Add the cream and bring to a boil, careful not to burn it.

2. Pour the butter-cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until melted.

3. The chocolate ganache is ready!

Since I don’t have heavy cream on hand, I didn’t add that but added some icing sugar with more butter and a tablespoon of condensed milk and it turns out pretty okay too. I mostly used non-sweet dark chocolate so the addition of icing sugar did not make it too sweet. However, if you want perfect chocolate topping, do use the heavy cream, it does makes a difference, especially teamed with the batik cake!

Now that I got your attention…

Another of my favourite dessert definitely has to be brownies. If you search this site, you will probably find that I have two other brownie recipes, a non-bake brownie and the best-ever brownie recipes. Now, what can compete with the best-ever chocolate brownie recipe I had?

Well, if you love peanut butter, you will think this recipe is way better than just chocolate and almonds in the brownies. I mean what is a better combination than peanut butter and chocolate eh? Don’t believe me? Then try it out for yourself.

The beige patch is the peanut butter and of course, one can never enjoy brownies fully without the required ice cream!

Since I put some chocolate ganache topping on it, it is just as good without the ice cream too.

This is a very simple and easy peanut butter chocolate brownie recipe so it can be made in a very short time, about 30 minutes preparation time and then you bake it for about 25 mins and it’s done! Oh, by the way, this is a rather cakey sort of brownie, not the chewy type.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies

You will only need eggs, sugar, flour, chocolate, butter and peanut butter and you’re all set!

I used three types of sugar: brown sugar, molasses and icing sugar. The icing sugar is to give the brownies a more fudgy texture while the brown sugar and molasses are simply because I like their flavours. You will need to beat the sugar and the eggs together first but not too fluffy. About 1 minute using the handheld mixer.

The brownie batter should be gooey and thick, not too watery. Oh and yes, remember to grease the pan and place a piece of foil if you want it to be easier to remove the brownie from the pan.

And once the brownie is done…pour some nice, delicious chocolate ganache topping. Yummm…

So, here’s the recipe and simple instructions to make these ultra delicious brownies…

Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

120g unsweetened chocolate (or any baking chocolate you want to use), broken into pieces

170g butter

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup icing sugar

(or you could simply use 2 cups white sugar instead of so many types of sugar)

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped almonds

2 tbsp peanut butter

Chocolate Ganache

50g cooking chocolate

1 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp butter

Instructions

1. Grease the pan and line it with foil. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Melt the butter and chocolate by putting it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Leave to cool.

3. Beat the eggs together with the sugar in a mixing bowl but don’t overdo it.

4. Add the eggs mixture to the melted chocolate (make sure the chocolate mixture is not hot or it may cook the eggs!) and then add in the flour, vanilla, almonds and peanut butter.

5. Stir and combine well. Pour into the prepared pan.

6. Bake for about 25 minutes.

For the Chocolate Ganache

It’s best to prepare this after the brownies are done.

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together.

2. Add the cocoa powder.

3. Pour it onto the baked brownies before it hardens.

You can then refrigerate the brownies in an air-tight container and serve it cold with ice cream later. Or you can also heat it up and serve with ice cream for a nice cold and hot combination of chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream. If you are a real chocoholic like me, dribble some chocolate sauce on top and ahhh….it’s what I’d call heavenly!